What are "toll positions"? (A refresher post!)

[GordonJ]

Can the person take a year off, conduct no business and not lose income?

Even 100k a year consultants can't do that.

So, maybe if Don Alm sets his businesses up on an automatic renewal, where they get invoiced and just pay to continue, yes, he has a good toll position. And with all the programs he's done and they simply renew, he has a great toll booth.

This one year off is one way to test a toll booth.

Many in ownership or CONTROL positions of products can easily do this, most gurus or Experts can not.

Gordon

Originally Posted by Ankesh

Thanks Gordon and Michael for this awesome conversation.

In my mind, I have 2 definitions.

1. Toll position. A place that you create for yourself in the middle of a lucrative field so that everyone who wants to be a part of the field has to pay you a cut. Dan Kennedy does that with his info products (from what I know, Dave Dee sold more Dan Kennedy products than Dan Kennedy himself - at least that was true a few years back) and consulting (he gets royalty / commission on good performance).

2. The moat. As Warren Buffet says. Create a moat around your product or company so that others can't compete with you.

Dan Kennedy lacks a moat because anyone else can become a marketing guru too. But Sean Ellis has created a moat by coining a new term "growth hacking." He is the first person people will think of as a guru when it comes to growth hacking. Jay Conrad Levinson had done this too with the term Guerilla marketing.

There are various ways to create moats. Patents and trademarks and using legal options (for eg: many restaurants can only either sell Coke or Pepsi products - not both. This is enforced by an exclusivity contract). Keeping price really low so others can't compete (Walmart). Out innovating others. Being the first one to create a platform (Stock exchanges, airbnb.com etc).

I think a lot of Don Alm type ideas are toll positions because no restaurant or hotel will spare adspace for 2 guys. But they may not necessarily be deep moats unless you employ legal contracts to keep things exclusive.

Hmm - lots to think about.

Originally Posted by GordonJ

Can the person take a year off, conduct no business and not lose income?

Even 100k a year consultants can't do that.

So, maybe if Don Alm sets his businesses up on an automatic renewal, where they get invoiced and just pay to continue, yes, he has a good toll position. And with all the programs he's done and they simply renew, he has a great toll booth.

This one year off is one way to test a toll booth.

Many in ownership or CONTROL positions of products can easily do this, most gurus or Experts can not.

Gordon

I don't know if a zero-hour workweek is an applicable test...

Just because many that sell just another me-too product can set up there business so that it takes no hands-on labor in order to keep it going...

Retailer A submits and order and Off-shore VA sends an email to Off-shore manufacturer B who ships the order directly to Retailer A.

To me a "Toll Position" is one ultimately where the customer has to go through me in one manor or another in order to get the product or service they desire... They can not get it from anyone else... I may be the wholesaler in that instance, and the customer is getting it from a retailer who gets it from me, but they still have to go through my "toll" in order to get the product.

Now if you want to combine that POV with the zero-hour workweek that's A-OK.

Me personally, I like to work and wouldn't know what to do with myself if I were not spending a chuck of my week working on by business hobbies.